Volkswagen | automobile | Britannica.com Volkswagen THIS IS A DIRECTORY PAGE. Britannica does not currently have an article on this topic. Alternative Title: KDF-Wagen 1968 Volkswagen Beetle The idea of an inexpensive Volkswagen, or “Peoples’ Car,” was given by Adolf Hitler to Ferdinand Porsche in 1933. In 1936 Porsche produced the first prototypes of what would later be known as the Beetle and would eventually become the world’s best-selling automobile. In later decades, Beetles were often customized by their owners, such as this vehicle from Germany painted with flowers, trees, and butterflies. Todd Gipstein/Corbis Flower-covered Volkswagen Beetle at the Montreal Botanical Garden. GarrettRock Camshaft in a Volkswagon engine. Andreas Frank Carburetor from a 1970 Volkswagen Beetle. Willdre Newsreel from the 1950s describing postwar economic recovery in West Germany and providing a British perspective on the prospect of European free trade.

Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library Learn about this topic in these articles: in automotive industry: Europe after World War II The post-World War II revival of the German automobile industry from almost total destruction was a spectacular feat, with most emphasis centring on the Volkswagen. At the end of the war the Volkswagen factory and the city of Wolfsburg were in ruins. Restored to production, in a little more than a decade the plant was producing one-half of West Germany’s motor vehicles and had established a... in automobile: European postwar designs ...of short domestic supply, made them attractive, and the importation of European-made models into the United States increased rapidly. At first, most of these were British, but by the mid-1950s the Volkswagen, originally envisioned by Adolf Hitler as a “people’s car” for Germany, had a firm grip on the American market, accounting for half the import sales. in Volkswagen AG Volkswagen production expanded rapidly in the 1950s. The company introduced the Transporter van in 1950 and the Karmann Ghia coupe in 1955.

Sales abroad were generally strong in most countries of export, but, because of the car’s small size, unusual rounded appearance, and historical connection to Nazi Germany, sales in the United States were initially sluggish. The car began to gain acceptance... in automobile: Japanese cars ...in 1955, but both firms began exporting to the United States in 1958. The first such car to sell in any quantity was the Toyota Corona, introduced in 1967. While $100 more expensive than the Volkswagen Beetle, it was slightly larger, better-appointed, and offered an optional automatic transmission. In Beetle’s Creation Story, a Plot Twist - The New York Times The New York Times Automobiles |In Beetle’s Creation Story, a Plot Twist Search Continue reading the main story Photo IDEA MAN Josef Ganz sitting in his Maikäfer, or May bug, prototype. He eventually had to flee Germany. Credit Photographs courtesy of RVP Publishers THE tale is intriguing: a Jewish engineer and journalist, whose designs and published work in the 1930s laid out the basics for the Volkswagen Beetle championed by Hitler, was arrested, chased from Germany and nearly airbrushed out of history.

The story of Josef Ganz is the result of more than five years of research by Paul Schilperoord, a Dutch technology journalist who is studying industrial design in Italy. The trove of documents and photographs he assembled form the basis of “The Extraordinary Life of Josef Ganz: The Jewish Engineer Behind Hitler’s Volkswagen” (RVP Publishers, 2011). The book provides a picture of the automotive culture in Germany between the wars, with many small, struggling companies. Published in English for the first time in November, the work had previously been available in Dutch, Portuguese and German. In a telephone interview, Mr. Schilperoord addressed the book’s challenge to the standard history — that Hitler hired Ferdinand Porsche, who was known as one of Germany’s most successful automobile engineers from his work on military vehicles during World War I, to design and build his Strength Through Joy car. The Strength Through Joy movement was a Nazi enterprise that organized worker recreation programs, sponsoring sports and vacations. Continue reading the main story Mr. Schilperoord said that before World War II the word Volkswagen was so common as to be a cliché.

“People’s car” in Germany in the 1930s was like “personal computer” in the United States in the 1980s. Inspired by Henry Ford, many young engineers sought to build transportation for the many. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Ganz was one. Ganz wrote for the magazine Motor-Kritik, which faulted German cars as antiquated and often unsafe, while he also consulted on engineering matters for automakers. He held a number of patents for suspension, steering and other systems. Ganz advocated a people’s car with an air-cooled engine placed at the rear, based on a backbone-type frame and using independent suspension at both ends. He was a friend of Paul Jaray, an aeronautical pioneer, and pushed for Jaray’s streamlined body designs whose shape resembled what is now known as the Beetle. Ganz promoted these ideas as a journalist. As part of the press gaggle covering the new chancellor’s visit, Mr. Schilperoord said, “He probably stood a few meters from Hitler at the 1933 Berlin auto show.” But little more than a year later, according to Mr.

Schilperoord, Ganz was arrested by the Gestapo, removed from his magazine job because he was Jewish and driven from the country. Ganz felt his life was in danger in Germany and Switzerland, where he settled. Ganz had run afoul of the Nazis even before Hitler took power. In 1931, a Nazi propaganda publication highlighting the ostensible shady business practices of Jews charged Ganz with editorially intimidating car companies to give him consulting fees. He was hired by Adler, BMW, Mercedes and Standard. “Yes, it is a slightly strange position,” Mr. Schilperoord said. “How can you be a consultant and also be the critic? But I believe he honestly wanted to see progress in car design.” At the time, Mr. Schilperoord said, Ganz was the only one arguing for a combination of tubular chassis, rear engine, streamlined body and independent suspension — a formula that would produce a light, affordable family car. The Ganz story even has a villain worthy of a period thriller, Paul Ehrhardt, a former colleague at Motor-Kritik. The two had a falling out, and it is thought that Ehrhardt probably denounced Ganz to the Nazis.

After fleeing Germany, Ganz tried to develop a people’s car for Switzerland. In 1951, he moved to Australia and went to work for Holden, the General Motors subsidiary. In 1965 he told his story to Australian Motor Sports and Automobiles magazine under the headline “How I Invented the Volkswagen.” Ganz died in 1967. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Perhaps because it is hard to accept that a feel-good car like the Beetle could be so closely linked to the evils of Nazi Germany, people have long been captivated by stories of alternative origins. Ganz is just one of several engineers considered to have a rightful claim to being the Beetle’s creator. The Automotive Hall of Fame in Detroit, among other groups, supports the position that key ideas came from Bela Barenyi, the genius engineer from Daimler Benz who invented the crumple zone and other safety features. Hans Ledwinka, of the Czech automaker Tatra, may have the strongest case; Hitler and Ganz saw the impressive Tatra 77 at the 1934 Berlin auto show.

After the war, a German court agreed on Ledwinka’s role in creating the Beetle and ordered a payment of three million marks. Whether the readers of Mr. Schilperoord’s book will accept the thesis that without Ganz the Volkswagen would not have existed is less certain. Ganz’s ideas showed up in models he helped develop, like the Standard Superior and in his Maikäfer, or May bug, prototype. But there were many similar cars: the rear-engine Mercedes 140, 150 and 170H models, the small Tatra 11, even the oddball Bungartz Butz. Porsche himself designed two VW-like models, in 1931-32, one for Zundapp, the motorcycle maker, and another for NSU. “The Beetle was an accumulation from many ideas and from so many people that it is impossible to say one person was the originator of it,” Mr. Schilperoord said. But the Beetle was more than a collection of technical innovations. To build cars for a whole people, as Henry Ford showed, required the creation of a huge manufacturing, sales and distribution enterprise.

In a country as economically desperate as Germany was between the wars, only an ego-driven tyrant would have undertaken such an enterprise. But as history proved, the sound principles underlying the Beetle’s design enabled it to outlive the reign of the murderous dictator who made the project possible. A version of this article appears in print on January 22, 2012, on Page AU2 of the New York edition with the headline: In Beetle’s Creation Story, a Plot Twist. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Happy 70th Birthday (sort of) to the original Volkswagen Beetle Happy 70th Birthday (sort of) to the original Volkswagen Beetle Andrew Hard Pin it Share Shortly after Christmas 1945, an icon was born. World War II had at last come to an end, and out of its destructive wake rolled a round, cartoonish-looking compact known as the Volkswagen Beetle . Also called the Volkswagen Type 1 or VW Bug, the Beetle would eventually be sold more than 21 million times, making it the most prolific car in history. If there were a Mount Rushmore for automobiles, it would undoubtedly have a place reserved on it for the little Bug.

The first Beetle officially rolled off the production line 70 years ago this week, but the vehicle’s true foundations were laid much earlier. In 1934, Adolf Hitler contracted automotive engineer and Porsche founder Ferdinand Porsche to design an inexpensive, simple car to ride on Germany’s newly-laid Autobahn road network. Dubbed the KdF-Wagen or “People’s Car” by the Führer, the rear-drive two-door was capable of ferrying two adults and three children at 62 mph comfortably, while only using 7 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers — 32 mpg in the States. The People’s Car would be built just 630 times, but the Beetle’s path was set. Beetle Type 1 in Wolfsburg VW The U.S. military took control of the KdF-Wagen’s Wolfsburg production facility in April 1945, and subsequently transferred ownership to the British two months later.

British Army officer Major Ivan Hirst was tasked with bringing the plant back up to speed, but in an apt representation of the vehicle’s militaristic origins, his first assignment was removing an unexploded bomb from in between several pieces of irreplaceable production equipment. If the bomb had gone off, the Beetle’s story would have likely ended right then and there, yet another casualty of the brutal global conflict. Related: VW’s Golf R isn’t just a rocketship you can afford, it’s one you can live with Hirst’s hands proved steady however, and thus the Beetle was given its chance to shine. The plant was only able to churn out 55 cars by the end of 1945 — a result of improvised management and material shortages — but as Volkswagen describes , “The early vehicles were visible symbols of hope; a new beginning for the car plant under British control.” “Volkswagen’s British roots remain discernible still today,” the brand says. “It was the British who converted the factory to civilian manufacturing, and who focused on the quality of the vehicles.

They paid great attention to service and meeting customers’ needs, and set up a dealer network which was already covering all three western zones of Germany by 1948.” In October 1949, the Volkswagenwerk GmbH company was returned to German hands, and the Beetle was a key player in the development of post-war democracy and economic stability in the country. “Herbie” Beetle Type 1 Simon Evans/123RF.com As the years ticked by, the vehicle became a symbol of flower power and surf culture, starred in Hollywood films, and even became a staple in motorsports. Then, 65 years after its introduction, the Beetle was finally squished. The Mexican-built Última Edición went on sale in June 2003, marking the end of a truly legendary production run. The quirky Beetle has gone through just two redesigns over its lifetime, and even though you can buy an A5 version from a Volkswagen dealership today, there’s nothing quite like the original. Its bulging eyes have seen dictators come and go, social movements rise and fall, and the global landscape continue to change.

And with countless examples still on the road, there’s still much more for the lovable Bug to see. Happy Birthday, Beetle. Volkswagen is founded - May 28, 1937 - HISTORY.com Volkswagen is founded Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1937, the government of Germany–then under the control of Adolf Hitler of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party–forms a new state-owned automobile company, then known as Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH. Later that year, it was renamed simply Volkswagenwerk, or “The People’s Car Company.” Originally operated by the German Labor Front, a Nazi organization, Volkswagen was headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany. In addition to his ambitious campaign to build a network of autobahns and limited access highways across Germany, Hitler’s pet project was the development and mass production of an affordable yet still speedy vehicle that could sell for less than 1,000 Reich marks (about $140 at the time). To provide the design for this “people’s car,” Hitler called in the Austrian automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche.

In 1938, at a Nazi rally, the Fuhrer declared: “It is for the broad masses that this car has been built. Its purpose is to answer their transportation needs, and it is intended to give them joy.” However, soon after the KdF (Kraft-durch-Freude)-Wagen (“Strength-Through-Joy” car) was displayed for the first time at the Berlin Motor Show in 1939, World War II began, and Volkswagen halted production. After the war ended, with the factory in ruins, the Allies would make Volkswagen the focus of their attempts to resuscitate the German auto industry. Volkswagen sales in the United States were initially slower than in other parts of the world, due to the car’s historic Nazi connections as well as its small size and unusual rounded shape. In 1959, the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach launched a landmark campaign, dubbing the car the “Beetle” and spinning its diminutive size as a distinct advantage to consumers. Over the next several years, VW became the top-selling auto import in the United States.

In 1960, the German government sold 60 percent of Volkswagen’s stock to the public, effectively denationalizing it. Twelve years later, the Beetle surpassed the longstanding worldwide production record of 15 million vehicles, set by Ford Motor Company’s legendary Model T between 1908 and 1927. With the Beetle’s design relatively unchanged since 1935, sales grew sluggish in the early 1970s. VW bounced back with the introduction of sportier models such as the Rabbit and later, the Golf. In 1998, the company began selling the highly touted “New Beetle” while still continuing production of its predecessor. After nearly 70 years and more than 21 million units produced, the last original Beetle rolled off the line in Puebla, Mexico, on July 30, 2003. More on This Topic Ferdinand Porsche - YouTube Ferdinand Porsche Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Apr 24, 2015 Ferdinand Porsche[3] (3 September 1875 – 30 January 1951) was an automotive engineer and founder of the Porsche car company. He is best known for creating the first gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle (Lohner-Porsche), the Volkswagen Beetle, the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, several other important developments and Porsche automobiles. In addition, Porsche designed the 1923 Benz Tropfenwagen, which was the first racing car with a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout. In June 1934 Porsche received a contract from Hitler to design a "people's car" (or Volkswagen), following on from his previous designs such as the 1931 Type 12 car designed for Zündapp. The first two prototypes were completed in 1935. These were followed by several further pre-production batches during 1936 to 1939. The car was similar to the contemporary designs of Hans Ledwinka of Tatra, in particular the Tatra V570 and Tatra 97.

This resulted in a lawsuit against Porsche claiming infringement of Tatra's patents regarding air-cooling of the rear engine. The suit was interrupted by the German invasion of Czechoslovakia: several years after World War II Volkswagen paid a settlement. Porsche was an important contributor to the German war effort during World War II. He was involved in the production of advanced tanks such as the Tiger I, Tiger II, Elefant, and Panzer VIII Maus, as well as other weapon systems, including the V-1 flying bombs.[4] Porsche was a member of the German Nazi party and the SS. He was a recipient of the German National Prize for Art and Science, the SS-Ehrenring and the War Merit Cross. He was called the Great German Engineer by Nazi propaganda despite his Austrian-Czech background. In November 1945, Porsche was asked to continue the design of the Volkswagen in France and to move the factory equipment there as part of war reparations. Differences within the French government and objections from the French automotive industry put a halt to this project before it had even begun. On 15 December 1945, French authorities arrested Porsche, Anton Piëch, and Ferry Porsche as war criminals.

While Ferry was freed after 6 months, Ferdinand and Anton were imprisoned first in Baden-Baden and then in Paris and Dijon.[25] While his father was in captivity, Ferry tried to keep the company in business, and they also repaired cars, water pumps, and winches. A contract with Piero Dusio was completed for a Grand Prix motor racing car, the Type 360 Cisitalia. The innovative 4WD design never raced, but the money it received was used to redeem Ferdinand Porsche from prison. The company also started work on a new design, the Porsche 356, the first car to carry the Porsche brand name. The company then was located in Gmünd in Carinthia, where they had relocated from Stuttgart to avoid Allied bombing. The company started manufacturing the Porsche 356 in an old saw mill in Gmünd. They made only 49 cars, which were built entirely by hand. The Porsche family returned to Stuttgart in 1949 not knowing how to restart their business. The banks would not give them credit, as the company's plant was still under American embargo and could not serve as collateral.

So Ferry Porsche took one of the limited series 356 models from Gmünd and visited Volkswagen dealers to raise some orders. He asked the dealers to pay for the ordered cars in advance.[26] The serial version made in Stuttgart had a steel body welded to the central-tube platform chassis instead of the aluminium body used in the small Gmünd-made series. When Ferry Porsche resurrected the company he counted on series production figures of about 1,500. More than 78,000 Porsche 356s were manufactured in the following 17 years. Porsche was later contracted by Volkswagen for additional consulting work and received a royalty on every Volkswagen Type I (Beetle) car manufactured. This provided Porsche with a comfortable income as more than 20 million Type I were built. In 1996 Porsche was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and in 1999 posthumously won the award of Car Engineer of the Century. Hitler copied idea for iconic Volkswagen Beetle from Jewish engineer, historian claims | Daily Mail Online comments Adolf Hitler stole the idea for the iconic Volkswagen Beetle from a Jewish engineer and had him written out of history, a historian has sensationally claimed.

The Nazi leader has always been given credit for sketching out the early concept for the car in a meeting with car designer Ferdinand Porsche in 1935. His idea for the Volkswagen - or 'people's car' - is seen by many as one of the only worthwhile achievements of the genocidal dictator. Bug's life: Josef Ganz and his design, which Adolf Hitler saw at a car show in 1933, not long before he made his sketches for Ferdinand Porsche Gorgeous curves: One of Ganz's early drawings, which have been left buried in the past for many years 'People's car': Mr Ganz with one of his designs that author Paul Schilperoord says led up to the development of the Volkswagen But Paul Schilperoord's book, The Extraordinary Life of Josef Ganz - the Jewish engineer behind Hitler's Volkswagen, may change that forever. Hitler stipulated that the vehicle would have four seats, an air-cooled engine and cost no more than 1,000 Reichsmarks - the exact price that Mr Ganz said the car would cost.

RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Three years before Hitler described 'his idea' to Mr Porsche in a Berlin hotel, Mr Ganz was driving a car he had designed called the Maikaefer, or May Bug. The lightweight, low-riding vehicle looked very like the Beetle that was later developed by Mr Porsche, who is still considered the foremost car designer in German history. Jewish inventor Mr Ganz had been exploring the idea for an affordable car since 1928 and made many drawings of a Beetle-like vehicle. Mr Ganz's car was fitted with a tubular backbone chassis, a rear-mounted engine and independent suspension with swing axles, and it has a streamlined Beetle-like body Lightweight and low-cost: Mr Ganz's earliest sketches for his idea came in 1923 'Inspiration': More of the evidence from Mr Ganz's extensive drawings, which were apparently written out of history 'Lies': Hitler's sketches for the Volkswagen were previously considered one of his rare successes Hitler saw the May Bug at a car show in 1933 and made sketches.

Within days of the meeting between Hitler and Mr Porsche in 1935, Mr Ganz's car magazine was shut down and he was in trouble with the Gestapo. The journalist and inventor left for Switzerland and died in Australia in 1967. He is not mentioned in VW's first corporate history or in the Story of Volkswagen exhibition in Wolfsburg. 'So many things were the same in Hitler's sketches,' said Mr Schilperoord. 'Hitler definitely saw his prototype and I'm quite sure he must have read Ganz's magazine. 'It's quite clear Ganz had a big influence on how the idea was developed by the Nazis. 'Ferdinand Porsche drove Ganz's prototype in 1931. I found a lot of evidence that all similar rear engines in the 1930s can be traced back to Ganz. 'Even the price was the same. Porsche said doing this for 1,000 Reichsmarks was not possible but was forced to make it happen by the Nazis.' Meanwhile, Porsche's image is at stake, with some critics claiming he was a war criminal.

But although VW admits to producing military parts and using slave labour, Porsche was never tried for war crimes. But VW puts the doubt over the car's origins down to the fact that many people at the time were talking about the concept of a small and low-priced car. It claims that through Hitler, Mr Porsche found the funding that Mr Ganz lacked and was able to make something real out of what was a popular idea. 'Stolen': The sketch that Adolf Hitler was said to have given to Ferdinand Porsche in 1934 Popular design: Early Beetles in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate in 1938 Volkswagen Accessories & Parts - Rvinyl.com Lug Nuts Lug Nuts & Locking Wheel Bolts... Many enthusiasts don't realize it but the first Volkswagen was designed by the acclaimed automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche (yeah, the guy that Porsche is named after) to be a vehicle for the common man. Throughout the 1930s large, luxury sedans were the most popular and commonplace vehicles on the Autobahn but these behemoths were neither affordable nor accessible to the majority of Germans. Therefore, at the request of Hitler himself, Porsche began to design a line of cars that were both inexpensive and reliable.

The Fuehrer conceived o the name for the new marque as being the same as the party slogan "Joy through Strength" or KDF-wagne but the company had to shelve its plans before it could begin production due to the exigencies of war and the fact that the plant was badly damaged during WWII. After the war the company was offer to the British, French and Americans but was reject by all three powers. As a result, "Volkswagen" which is literally the "Folks' wagon," began domestic production at the end of the 1940s its iconic Beetle. The beloved Bug first first landed in American in 1949 and quickly became a favorite of the masses. Due to the perfect combination of engineering, design and marketing the Beetle surged in sales throughout the 1960s attracting a younger, hipper demographic who could not yet afford to the wildly popular muscle cars and large sedans of the time. Such was the success of the VW Bug that it managed to surpass Ford's venerated Model T in terms of volume by the 1970s and therefore became firmly entrenched in American automotive culture.

The Seventies also witnessed the arrival of yet two more iconic VW models: the Passat and the Golf (or Rabbit in North America). During the Eighties, the Rabbit replaced the Beetle as the most valuable asset in the Volkswagen line-up while the Passat and the Jetta would help to bolster sales throughout the decade. The Nineties saw the re-introduction of the Beetle to the delight of many enthusiasts as well as a redesign of the Jetta. At this time Volkswagen also acquired a number of luxury marques such as Lamborghini, Bugatti and Bentley which infused the companies design with fresh talent and ideas and increased their reach into new market segments. The 5th Gen Golf debuted in 2002 simultaneously with the luxury-styled Touareg. Although the 80s and 90s were tough in terms of sales for the German automaker, its sales began to rebound in the US domestic market in the second millennium. New models such as the Phaeton and the convertible Eos have helped VW to reassert itself as a marque that can deliver great styling and elegance as well as performance and reliability.

Volkswagen is one of the most venerable names in automotive history and its no surprise that it has made a dramatic comeback in recent years. VW has proven time and again that it can create vehicles that inspire and instantly create a cult-following/. Whether it is the classic Beetle, the idiosyncratic but beloved Vanagon or the tuner-inspired Golf GTI, Volkswagen is the perfect blend of affordability, style and performance which makes it appealing to just about everyone. At Rvinyl.com, we understand that VW-enthusiasts and drivers won't just settle for the ordinary; they want accessories and mods that match their tastes and preferences and we have done our very best to bring only the most stylish and high-quality parts and products to the table. So, whether you want to tint your taillights, wrap your hood or add the roar of a performance muffler we've got the tint film or aftermarket accessory you're looking for. Special Offers The Real Story Behind The Nazis And Volkswagen The Real Story Behind The Nazis And Volkswagen Go to permalink We’ve been talking about Volkswagen a lot lately, for pretty obvious reasons .

And pretty often in all this talking, we’ve encountered a lot of references to VW’s past, specifically the idea that the company was “ founded by Nazis. :( ” How true is this statement, really? Of Course This Angry Note To A Volkswagen TDI Owner Is From Portland Of Course This Angry Note To A Volkswagen TDI Owner Is From Portland Of Course This Angry Note To A Volkswagen TDI… Full disclosure, I have no clue if this is legit or not. But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it… Read more Read more There’s no denying the role of Nazi Germany and a certain failed artist with a funny mustache had in the creation of Volkswagen. Well, maybe VW denies it a little bit, since their Volkswagen Classics department (VW corporate’s heritage collection) doesn’t include any cars prior to 1950 and they really, really don’t like talking about that era. The truth is, of course, far more complicated than “the Nazis founded Volkswagen,” because, really, that’s not exactly true.

The whole history of the Beetle and the company that was created to build the car and then, after the war, sell the car all over the globe is actually quite interesting, and, really, has less to do with Hitler than you think. Also, as an aside, it should be mentioned that while VW tends to get most of the Nazi associations, they were hardly the only ones with dirty hands. It’s worth remembering that nearly every picture of Hitler in a car has him in a Mercedes-Benz. It’s also worth remembering that GM’s Opel division wasn’t shy about working for the Nazis, and that Henry Ford once received a birthday card from Hitler himself. Almost every industrialist from the leadup to World War II looks bad today. Advertisement Advertisement So, before some other smug Portlander warms up their color printer and trots out this tired old meme, let’s lay out the actual truth here. I’m going to break down Volkswagen into parts to be as thorough as possible: The Concept The fundamental idea behind Volkswagen, and the idea that gave the company its name, is the idea of a people’s car. A car that’s affordable and practical enough for almost everyone to own one.

While it was certainly a goal of Hitler’s, this idea is far older than Nazism itself, and has been around ever since mass-produced cars came around. The curved-dash Olds might be considered to be the first major attempt to make such a car, and the Ford Model T was the first car to really become a true people’s car, starting way back in 1908. Even in Germany, the people’s car idea was well-established long before the Nazis. The very primordial Beetle-like Hanomag Kommisbrot from 1925 could easily be considered to be a people’s car, for example. I Drove The Earliest Ancestor Of The VW Beetle And It Was Great I Drove The Earliest Ancestor Of The VW Beetle And It Was Great I Drove The Earliest Ancestor Of The VW Beetle… I've been sort of obsessed lately with the murky pre-history of the VW Beetle. It's one… Read more Read more Another Beetle ancestor, the Standard Superior, was even advertised using the word “volkswagen” because that word was already well-known and understood to mean an affordable small car for anybody. Basically, exactly what the Beetle would become.

So, conceptually, the idea of a ‘volkswagen’ is not Hitler’s or any particular Nazi. It predates National Socialism by a good couple decades, at least. The Fundamental Design of the Beetle Another popular misconception that you hear often is that Adolf Hitler ‘designed’ the car that would come to be known as the VW Beetle. While Hitler did draw a couple sketches of what he thought a volkswagen should look like, those drawings do not look like the final Beetle (it really resembles a number of rear-engine designs of the era, such as the Mercedes-Benz 130H , and Hitler certainly wasn’t an automotive engineer. So this just isn’t true — Hitler did not design the Beetle. Closer to the truth, but still not entirely accurate is that Ferdinand Porsche designed the car. Porsche certainly did (with the help of Erwin Komenda for the body design) design the car that would become the VW Beetle, with the familiar final design completed by 1938. Advertisement Sponsored So while the particular final design was done by Porsche, that design didn’t just leap from Porsche’s fertile brains.

The VW Beetle was really the culmination of a whole school of automotive thought happening in Europe — especially Germany — in the 1920s and 1930s, starting with Edmund Rumpler’s rear-engined, streamlined cars. The ideas of a backbone chassis, rear engine, air cooling, and a scarab-like, streamlined body were being explored by many people at that time. Josef Ganz , an automotive journalist and car designer, had started building prototypes of very Beetle-like cars for companies like Adler and later a production car, the Standard Superior. Ganz was a Jew, so the Nazis made sure that his input to the development of any German cars stayed unknown for years. Advertisement Mercedes-Benz had their 130H and 170H rear-engine cars, Zündapp commissioned Porsche before his involvement with the Nazi government for a rear-engined, Beetle-like car, and the Czech company Tatra was designing large, powerful V8 rear-engined, air-cooled, streamlined cars — and a smaller, very Beetle-like car — that were greatly admired by Hitler and provided Porsche with a lot of, um, inspiration.

Inspiration that resulted in VW paying Tatra a 1 million Deutsche Mark settlement in 1965. So, while Porsche definitely produced the final design that would become the Volkswagen, it’s more fair to say that he created a design that was heavily based on work by many other companies and designers. The Company So how about the Volkswagen company itself, the company you can buy cars from to this day — wasn’t that created by the Nazis, at least? The answer? No, not really. See, when Hitler decided he wanted a people’s car (not his idea), and got Porsche to design it (basing it heavily on the ideas of others), he needed a factory to build it and an organization to run it. The organization was called Kraft durch Freude which sounds scary in German but is even creepier in English: Strength-through-Joy. Advertisement Advertisement Kraft durch Freude (KdF) was the German leisure organization, organizing tourist trips and resorts and probably prostitutes, if you knew who to ask. The people’s car was seen as a way to improve the quality of life of German citizens, and so the car was renamed the KdF-Wagen and a savings-stamp scheme was started to let people save up for a car.

A whole town was built, called Stadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben, which means, “City of the KdF Car at Fallersleben.” Catchy! A huge factory was built to build the cars, barracks to house the people, and all that. So, based on this, you’re probably thinking “See, Jason, you dipshit, the Nazis directly started Volkswagen!” But wait — I’m not saying I’m not a dipshit, I’m just asking you to hear me out. Here’s the thing: under the KdF name and management, no civilian Beetles were actually ever sold. At all. Advertisement A little scuffle called WWII happened and pretty much killed KdF. The factory was converted to produce the VW-derived Kubelwagens and Schwimmwagens and other military hardware. A few Beetle/KdF bodies were made, usually on beefy Kubelwagen chassis, and used as command cars, with a few other variants. But, importantly, no basic passenger cars were ever sold. After the war, the factory was a mess, but barely functional.

Germany was an even worse mess, and the people of the town (soon to be renamed Wolfsburg) were desperate for food and work. It was under the British occupation that the VW factory actually started up again, under the leadership of Major Ivan Hirst . So, the first cars to be actually built for non-military use and sold (or traded) to civilians all happened after the Nazis were out of the picture. The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers ran the factory from after the war until 1949, when ownership was handed over to a decidely non-Nazi German government. Advertisement Advertisement A former Opel guy named Heinz Nordhoff was put in charge, and that all started the juggernaut that would become the Volkswagenwerk AG that made all those Beetles and buses and Ghias and whom we’re all so cheesed-off at right now because of this whole Diesel-cheating mess. So, the company that built the TDI that our jackass note-printer in Portland decided to hassle was definitely not founded by Nazis, strictly speaking.

I hope this helps to see that at the very least, the Volkswagen story is way more complicated than just “founded by Nazis.” There are absolutely roots in Nazi-era Germany there, and plenty of embarrassing photos, but if you want to be accurate, the Volkswagen we know today was not actually “founded by Nazis.” Advertisement 1000+ images about VW on Pinterest | Volkswagen, Vw camper and Buses Forward Ferdinand Porsche and Hans Stuck at Masaryk Grand Prix in city of Brno, Czchoslovakia in 1934 with the 1934 Auto Union Grand Prix racing cars Type A - In 1932 Auto Union Gmbh was formed, comprising struggling auto manufacturers Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer. The Chairman, Baron Klaus von Oertzen wanted a show piece project. Through Rosenberger, von Oertzen met with Porsche and Stuck. Subsequently Hitler agreed his state-sponsored racing programme commit not just to Mercedes but also Auto… See More

Question: Which automotive engineer designed the Volkswagen 'Beetle'?
Answer: FERDINAND PORSCHE